Secret letter
Secret letters are a certain type of papal document from the 14th century . They are a document form corresponding to the Breve of the Avignonesian obedience at the time of the Great Western Schism , i.e. the (counter) popes Clement VII and Benedict XIII. Whether, as suspected, Gregor XI. Has issued secretary letters is questionable; in any case, no original has appeared yet.
The secretary letter begins in the first line with the name of the Pope; his title is usually abbreviated, i.e. Clemens etc. Then the address follows in the vocative without naming the name: dilecte fili (beloved son), then the text begins without a greeting . The dating only mentions the place, the seal and the date of the month and day: date Avinion. sub signeto nostro secreto the X. septembris . The pontificate year is missing; occasionally there is the addition of festinanter (hastily). The secretary usually signs on the right under the text .
The secretion letters are written on rectangular sheets of paper ( parchment is the exception). They are sent locked. The secretion seal embossed in red wax ( fisherman's ring seal ) is used to close it; The language is Latin, sometimes French. With Benedict XIII. the tradition of the secretary letter ends.
literature
- Thomas Frenz: Papal documents of the Middle Ages and modern times . 2nd updated edition. Steiner, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-515-07788-X , ( Historical Basic Sciences in Individual Representations 2), p. 38f. § 40.